A Simple Job
by Arabian Princess
Summary: Odin is approached one day by one of Septem's men for a job. Written for Odin Lowe month at gwozzies on LJ.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam Wing. This fan fiction has no commercial value, and I am not making any kind of profit or income off of this story or the use of characters owned by Sunrise and Bandai.

A Simple Job

He sat on a stool in his garage cleaning a gadget. The news was on the television in front of him. Heero Yuy was giving a speech, and being in the colonies, every single channel carried it. He did not mind too much as he could ignore it easily and even if he could, he had nothing better to watch anyway. He had just turned on the television for background noise. He was not interested in Mr. Yuy's pacifism and frankly did not give a damn if they were a free nation. Apparently Mr. Yuy had the same ideals as the suburban yuppies who had started moving up to space in the last decade or so. They felt space was a (safe) adventure. Who had called for independence and equality ten years ago?

Like most people, they forgot (or rather ignored) that the first settlers were not noble pioneers. The first workers were littered outlaws. It was common knowledge to those in certain circles that at the beginning of the AC era, prisoners were commonly sent to work on the colonies to shorten their life sentences. When someone wanted to escape the law, he volunteered to help with the colonies; background checks were minimal at best, and with the prisons renting out their residents, a guy could count on meeting up with his not-so-lucky comrades easily. From the very beginning, space and the colonies had an outlaw's paradise.

Once a few colonies' construction had finished, there was a rush to live in space. With the still harsh conditions, however, it was the lower classes that generally stayed for any long period of time. It was an expensive journey, but most could scrape together enough funds to make it to their "promised land." It was still a bandit's paradise then, though. Crime families relocated to space where the law was much more loosely enforced. Others on the edge of the law immigrated to space to escape the constraints of the general public. It was an anything-goes society in space with no one to judge; people lived by their instincts instead of laws. No one minded that Earth wanted to keep a tight leash on the colonies' exports and expenses—most of the large "businesses" embezzled and misrepresented their finances anyway—and they knew they would have gotten worse if they were on Earth, given their activities.

Then, about thirty years ago, politics got heated enough that families escaped to the colonies. Out of one of those families came Heero Yuy. Ten years ago, space colonies became prime real estate, and every middle class family had dreams of being part of the new aristocracy since they had no chance of joining Romefeller. Now, they refused to be treated like second-class citizens; the public now gave a damn about the colonies' citizens. Who cared about their wellbeing before the middle class arrived? The answer was no one. With the exception of the L-4 Cluster, no one cared about the colonies or the injustices the Alliance made on them. Heero Yuy's speech, however, made one think that the colonies' independence was a longtime cause which deserved to finally be fulfilled.

"You, Odin Lowe?" a man said suddenly. He looked at opened garage door. A soldier was silhouetted against the setting sun. He gave a curt nod, and the man advanced. "I'm Major Aderton of the Cosmos Arms."

He raised his eyebrow. "You're from Colonel Septem."

Aderton nodded. "Yes and the colonel assured me you would keep this conversation between us, regardless of your decision."

Odin fiddled with the device a little, glancing out the corner of his eye to see Aderton was sweating some. He was the first stop then, Septem's first choice, and the soldier was inexperienced at this. The major had probably killed countless men in battle, but this job clearly spooked him in some way. Odin was very curious what the target was, but he was careful to conceal this fact.

He put his full attention back on the equipment on which he was working. "It'd be bad for business if I leaked information. It'd be bad for business if I were in the habit of rejecting jobs."

"This one is big," Major Aderton insisted. Odin snorted just for show.

"Everyone insists it's big. What is it? Does he want me to take care of some disgruntled mistress? Should I take out a rival colonel?"

Aderton shook his head in irritation. "No! Not at all! He doesn't want you to get rid of something so frivolous." He glanced behind himself. "Can anyone overhear us?"

"Did you see anyone when you walked up?" Aderton shook his head to indicate a negative. "There's a big game on later tonight, and the bar down the street has the best TV on the colony. Once this speech is over, the game'll start, so all my neighbors are down there. Besides, I doubt anyone here would eavesdrop and then alert any authority figure. They'd be more likely to blackmail you."

"Well, can't you shut the door?"

"No. Now continue."

He looked worried, but eventually he went on, "Colonel Septem…he wants you to take care of…to take care of…." His eye wandered to the news broadcast. "Do you have to have that on?"

He looked at the screen for the first time in the past hour or so. "Not a big of fan of Yuy? I suppose most Alliance soldiers wouldn't be, though." He shrugged and muted the show.

"You're not too into him, are you?" Aderton shifted from foot to foot. "I mean, you're not one of his fanatics or something…are you?"

He smirked. "What're you going to do? Arrest me if I am?"

The man paled a little. "No, not exactly."

He gave him a strange look. "Relax. I don't really care about politics."

A load lifted off Aderton's shoulders, and he gave a sigh of relief. "It's just…well you'll understand."

"Then get to the damn point," he growled. Dancing around the issue was one thing; running away from it was another.

"Well, as you said, Heero Yuy is a threat to the Alliance. Unofficially, _very_ unofficially, and quite secretly, the Foundation gave the Alliance a tantalizing offer." Odin did not bother to inquire who "the Foundation" was. Aderton continued, "Whoever gets rid of the Yuy threat first gets a hefty promotion." He understood perfectly.

"Then my target will be Mr. Heero, eh?" He had set down the tool and given his full attention to Major Aderton.

"It's not just that. You think every other soldier is just going to take the pacifistic route? There's going to be a lot of hit men following Yuy soon, and we want to be sure to have the best. We want to be sure to have the one that'll get it done before the others."

"What do you mean 'soon'?"

Aderton looked off at a wall. "Colonel Septem has ties within the Foundation, good strong ties. They gave him a little warning about the offer, but there's no telling how many others have 'good, strong ties' as well. We need this done as quickly as possible."

Odin looked at the screen. It was true he did not care about politics one way or the other, and he did feel Heero Yuy was out of touch with the real colonists, but would he still kill him? He was an assassin. He had no feelings toward his targets or towards humans in general. This would be no different. However, he could not shake the feeling that he should not take the job. Did he somehow feel that Yuy was needed in this world?

The major slid a paper toward him. He looked at the number, and his greed shoved away his emotions on the subject. He heard himself agreeing to take the job before he had decided he would.

"You will? Really?" At first he thought the major sounded incredulous—perhaps they were prepared to offer more money?—but then he saw that the major was simply relieved. He was probably afraid that looking for Yuy's assassin on a colony would be the death of him.

"Anything special?" he inquired. Aderton told him about Septem's requests on when and where it should be done, that way the colonel's superiors could be certain it was he who was responsible for the act.

He thought about it for a moment. "I'm going to have to retire after this, you know. Once I hit Yuy, every police force will be out, looking for my signature."

"The colonel strongly suggests you retire, actually. He's prepared for some…benefits every few years or so, provided you get the job done."

"I'll need some sort of assurance. I can't just take the word of his subordinate."

"I'll be back later with your assurance," he guaranteed. "I'll bring everything else then, too. Will this satisfy you until then?" He nodded. Major Aderton then turned on his heel and left into the setting sun, just as he had come. Odin watched his silhouette leave. He turned on the volume once more and returned to cleaning the gadget, pushing down the nagging feeling that told him just to walk away.


End file.
